Working with museums and libraries

Museums, archives, libraries and other cultural venues make excellent partners.

Museums and libraries have a lot to offer and often have unique attributes which can enhance your engagement activity. Museums are not just treasure houses; libraries are not just buildings of books – many are well rooted within their communities, housing a variety of opportunities and highly skilled staff who are well experienced in engaging their audiences.

They are also very diverse, from the smallest local library or museum, through to large national museums and archives. Universities themselves also house museums and libraries, which are often highly tailored to specific subjects and which have their own unique audiences.

There are a number of different activities you can run with venues such as museums, libraries and other cultural centres. These could range from giving a lunchtime gallery talk or staging an exhibit, to using your research to find new ways of looking at their collections. Museums, libraries and cultural venues use a range of different and creative approaches to engagement delivery that you can learn from, and you can benefit from the support of staff who do this day to day.

The NCCPE has also coordinated the Museum-University Partnership Initiative, bringing museums and universities together to work towards mutually beneficial aims. This project has produced a number of outputs and resources, find out more on the Museum-University Partnership Initiative page.